The Ultimate Nonprofit #GivingTuesday Checklist

The biggest giving day of the year is coming up on Dec. 1. Is your nonprofit ready for #GivingTuesday?

In 2014, more than 15,000 organizations participated in Giving Tuesday,raising $45.68 million. Last year alone 68 countries participated and total donations grew by nearly 63% — and this year is expected to be even more successful!

We’ve created a quick checklist to prepare your nonprofit for Giving Tuesday.

 Create a content calendar

Create your content calendar now rather than later, so you have more time to be creative and avoid posts that look like spam.

Bonus: Don’t fall into the trap of repeating the same message over and over. Always offer new information in every post, such as an update or a new fact. If your fans have already liked your first donate-to-support-us post, they’re not likely to like it again if it’s the same post. By offering new information, you give them something new to like, comment and share. See more ideas on creating an effective nonprofit content strategy.

 Schedule your social media posts and emails

Use Facebook Insights to find out when most of your organization’s fans are online. Go to your organization’s Facebook page > View Insights (in the admin panel) > Posts > When Your Fans Are Online. Then, schedule your social media posts and emails accordingly.

 Salt the jar

This idea originated from baristas and their tip jars. To salt the jar means to add a bit of money into a tip jar in hopes of encouraging others to add to it. A lot of us are guilty of this — we don’t do something unless other people do it first. For Giving Tuesday, salt the jar by asking your friends, family and your organization’s biggest supporters to donate early on Giving Tuesday.

 Designate special #GivingTuesday staff

Giving Tuesday is only one day of the year, so to make the most of it, ensure someone in your organization is monitoring your fundraising page and social media channels. Equip this person with all the information he or she needs, such as where the funds go and when the funds will be allocated. This person should also be able to instruct supporters on how to donate in case they’re not familiar with donating online.

 Launch social media ads

Because of Facebook EdgeRank, not all of your Facebook fans will see your posts. As a matter of fact, a report by Agora Pulse found that Facebook pages only reach 10 to 20 percent of fans. To make sure as many of your fans know you’re participating in Giving Tuesday, launch Facebook promoted posts that target people already connected to your organization.

 Prepare your stakeholders

Your organization’s biggest ambassadors are its employees and board members, so use them wisely. Julie Dixon, director of Georgetown University’s Center for Social Impact Communication, said in her TED Talk: “Embedded in one person’s influence is a whole network of other people’s time and money and talents and resources and skills just waiting to be activated.” Make it as easy as possible for your stakeholders to leverage their influence by crafting tweets, Facebook posts, and emails that they can easily copy and paste to share with their networks.

 Double-check your fundraiser and website

The day before Giving Tuesday — or earlier — make sure everything is functioning on your fundraising page and website. Giving Tuesday has the potential to drive new visitors to your website, so it’s important to make sure your organization will make a good impression. Is your donation button easy to find? Will people have trouble understanding what your organization does? These are things to address before Giving Tuesday.

 Prepare for post-Giving Tuesday

The last thing we want to do is engage someone on Giving Tuesday and let them forget about us, so plan ahead on how to keep your participants engaged. Prepare thank you posts and thank you emails, ask them to follow your organization on social media, tell them about upcoming volunteer opportunities and create an infographic for them to share.

Other post-Giving Tuesday activities include emailing donor surveys, which could give your organization insight into whether Giving Tuesday brought in new donors. Visit Knight Foundation’s Giving Tuesday Playbook which has numerous post-Giving Tuesday tips.

What else is your organization doing to prepare for Giving Tuesday? Let us know in the comments below.

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